Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 24 Oct 1990

Vol. 402 No. 1

Written Answers. - Tax Revenue.

Proinsias De Rossa

Ceist:

99 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance if he will outline in respect of each of the years from 1983 to 1989 the proportion of total tax represented by (a) income tax (b) indirect tax (c) capital taxes (d) taxes on company profits and (e) taxes on inheritances and gifts.

Minister for Finance (Mr. A. Reynolds)

The proportion of total tax revenue represented by each of the elements referred to by the Deputy are set out in percentage terms in the following table:

	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1988	1989
						Inclusive of Tax Amnesty	Exclusive of Tax Amnesty
(a) Income Tax	35.5	37.1	37.7	39.2	41.8	41.7	40.6	38.0
(b) Indirect Tax	56.8	55.4	55.0	54.0	52.1	51.1	53.4	55.8
(c) Capital Taxes	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.8	0.7	0.8
(d) Taxes on Company Profits	4.6	4.0	3.9	4.2	4.0	4.6	4.2	4.1
(e) Taxes on inheritance and gifts	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4

Notes:

1. In line with the normal budgetary definition, capital taxes (item c) includes capital gains tax, residential property tax, residual estate duties and capital acquisitions tax. The latter is a tax on gifts and inheritances which was introduced in 1975 in place of estate duties.

2. Taxes on inheritance and gifts (item e) includes capital acquisition tax and residual estate duties and is a sub-set of capital taxes (item c).

Proinsias De Rossa

Ceist:

100 Proinsias De Rossa asked the Minister for Finance the way in which Ireland compares with other EC countries on the proportion of the total tax yield represented by company tax in each of the last nine years.

Minister for Finance (Mr. A. Reynolds)

The proportion of "total tax revenue" (see note 2) represented by corporation tax in Ireland and in other EC countries over the last nine years is set out in percentage terms in the following table:

	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988	1989
Ireland	5.0	4.7	3.8	3.3	3.2	3.5	3.2	3.8	3.4
United Kingdom	9.5	9.9	10.9	11.8	12.6	10.5	10.5	10.8	12.3
France	5.2	5.3	4.6	4.4	4.5	5.0	5.1	5.2	5.5
Germany	5.0	5.1	5.1	5.4	6.1	6.0	5.1	5.3	5.5
Italy	8.3	8.8	9.0	9.8	9.2	10.6	10.5	9.4	4.1
Spain	4.6	4.7	4.9	5.0	5.2	5.5	6.7	6.5	8.7
Luxembourg	15.4	15.2	17.0	15.5	18.2	16.7	17.1	17.3	—
Belgium	5.3	6.0	5.8	6.2	6.4	6.6	6.6	6.9	—
Netherlands	7.0	6.8	6.1	5.7	7.0	7.3	7.7	7.3	7.7
Greece	3.8	3.8	2.4	2.6	2.7	4.0	4.4	3.9	—
Denmark	2.8	2.6	3.0	5.3	4.9	6.2	4.5	4.4	4.2

The published data for Ireland in 1988 include the effect of the tax amnesty. When this is discounted, the proportion of total revenue presented by corporation tax reduces to 3.4 per cent.

NOTES:

1. These figures (including those for Ireland) are extracted from "Revenue Statistics of OECD Member Countries 1965-1989" (OECD, Paris 1990). Corporation Taxation figures for Portugal are not provided in the publication, and the data for Luxembourg, Belgium and Greece are not as yet available for 1989.

2. The defintion of "total tax revenue" used in the OECD publication includes social security and health contributions, local authority rates, and EC levies. It is wider in scope than the concept of tax revenue used in the Irish budget.